Palming off business issues: Managing Editor Software's AdsUp system allows advertising salespeople to see the insertion order (upper left).and it has handy pull-down menus to enter data (upper right). Geac's Route Command on the Palm provides details for retail drop-offs (lower right) and then captures the retailer's signature (lower left).

Handhelds make their way into circulation, sales departments

By now, everyone has seen a PalmPilot. Whether it is during a conference, in an airport or at a lunch, these devices have become a major part of people's lives -- both personal and professional. But they are not just for storing contact information or playing infrared Battleship. They are capable of sending and retrieving business-critical information and can act as small, lightweight, powerful database tools.

Many large businesses have been leery of supporting handheld devices. All it takes is one crash where the user hasn't backed up the data to create a very negative situation. It can be even worse for the technology professional assigned to support it. But these policies have begun to change, mainly because of the proliferation of handhelds -- specifically devices from Palm Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. -- and increased understanding of how Palms can interact on company networks and designated servers.

Newspapers are no strangers to Palms, but the visibility and usage for company-wide business has been lower. However, handhelds are beginning to find a way to become an integral part of the newspaper-information system because of their portability and flexibility.

In recent months, a few newspaper-technology suppliers have implemented handheld device applications and are offering solutions for newspapers.

Tampa, Fla.-based Geac Publishing Systems recently announced Route Command, which ties the Palm into the company's Circulation Command system allowing information to be delivered to and received from "carriers, racks and dealers."

Managing Editor Inc. of Jenkintown, Pa., also has a Palm solution, but for the sales department. AdsUp allows salespeople to enter information into the Palm and upload it to the newspaper.

The Wilmington, Mass.-based Advanced Technical Solutions Inc. (ATS) also offers a personal digital assistant (or PDA, another term for handheld computers) solution in its Circ2000 product. With the ATS product, carriers use a Softbook e-reader. These devices are slightly larger than a Palm, about the size of a regular book, seven inches by seven inches. What makes them initially more attractive is the size of the screen display. RCA, Rocket and SoftBook manufacture e-book devices.

Hand jive
Handheld solutions for sales and circulation departments allow for faster and more accurate information retrieval. The options for transmitting and receiving information from the field are numerous enough and flexible enough to keep pace with the development of handheld technology. A handheld solution offers the remote worker a way to quickly view information, retrieve and transmit it; it isn't a complete package solution for sales people wanting to do PowerPoint presentations.

Palm technology centers around the miniscule kernel that runs the operating system (OS). The OS uses around 40 kilobytes of memory. The optimization of the OS allows the user to jam tons of information into the 4-8 megabyte drives. The Palm is designed to present information quickly and runs on two AAA batteries that need to be replaced about every three months. It weighs about six ounces and can easily fit in a briefcase, pocketbook or a front shirt pocket (be careful though, it also easily slips out of that same pocket).

Development of programs to run under the Palm OS proliferates like bunnies and developers and shareware are abundant. Porting applications to the Palm is not a difficult endeavor, but getting users to use a handheld in their daily routine tends to be the more challenging aspect of deploying them. The Palms are not designed to be left on. They do automatically turn off after a preset time, but are really meant to be turned on quickly, access the application, retrieve data or input data and go back to sleep.

Transferring data with Palm or other handheld devices currently involves traditional modem technology. A user connects to a phone line or cellular modem, dials a number and then downloads or uploads information using Palm's HotSync technology, which is the main way in which Palm devices connect to a host computer and synchronize the data.

Running on a desktop machine or server is the host application, and a minimal variant of the application runs on the Palm. Passing the data is reasonably straightforward and synchronization is very reliable. The Palm also has TCP/IP capabilities for communicating on networks.

Palm currently offers eight models, and devices range from the Palm VIIx with wireless capabilities to the Palm IIIxe, which can use traditional modem interfaces. Other companies offer handhelds based on the Palm OS, such as Handspring, TRG, IBM and Symbol.

Circulating systems
Geac's Route Command connects the handheld device to its World Class application or Circulation Command system. The data is passed from World Class or Circulation Command to a temporary file then repackaged and transferred to the handheld. The Geac system runs on an SQL server and uses Microsoft Access to pass the data back and forth.

"Data is stored in standard PDB [Palm Database] structure," said Ed Schessl, development manager at Geac. "That data is then stored in a temporary Microsoft Access table and then the table structure is passed to the Palm via HotSync 3.0."

Geac's director of circulation development, Nick Cutts, said, "There has always been printed documents and lists, but there is not always enough room to put all the information in."

Using a PDA, carriers and dealers can input more data if they need to. The other major benefit is that the data is input in readable form instead of being handwritten.

"The key to this is getting the information back into the system," Cutts said. "And that allows for analysis of the information."

Carriers and dealers would use the handheld device in the field to lookup delivery manifests and collect vendor payment information including signatures with time stamps. Carriers would "add, change and delete drops, publications and product." It gives the carriers more flexibility. They can even re-sequence the delivery order. The application on the Palm device includes drop-down menus, an on-screen keypad for those choosing not to use the stylus for input as well as search options.

"Carriers also would be able to keep info on complaints, such as late deliveries, and return this information back to the paper," Cutts said.

Route Command is still in the beta stage and debuted at NEXPO 2000. Cutts said Geac would be giving demos at NEXPO 2001 in June in New Orleans.

ATS also offers a circulation system -- Circ2000 -- that uses a PDA (in this case, the Softbook e-reader). The Softbook is similar in technology to the Palm, but has a larger display screen.

"The Softbook uses a phone line," said Ken Schurr, sales manager for Circ2000. "The carriers plug the Softbook into the phone line and the device calls the paper and identifies itself and downloads the information."

Circ2000 was developed by the Central Newspapers Inc. of Phoenix for use at its own properties; the product was beta tested at the Arizona Republic, which is still the only newspaper using this handheld solution. Central had licensed ATS to market the product across the industry. When Central was sold last year to Gannett Co. Inc., the development and marketing rights for Circ2000 reverted to ATS.

Circ2000 product director Rich Cunningham Schurr said the handhelds receive information running from a Sybase database in the Circ2000. The data is passed in an HTML format.

"We are leaning toward the [Softbook] e-reader because the carrier can see more on their screen," Cunningham said. "They can read it, day or night, thanks [to] the built-in backlighting."

Indeed, the Softbook e-readers provide better visual display and, according the Schurr and Cunningham, the Republic has some mounted on the dashboards of the carrier's vehicles. This wouldn't be possible with a Palm because of the size of the much-smaller display.

A major benefit, said Cunningham and Schurr, is that when a carrier calls in sick, the route manager can simply pass off the handheld device to the fill-in carrier and hardly a beat is missed. (This is a benefit for the Palm solutions provided by Geac, as well.)

Once the route lists are in the device, nearly anyone could take over. And since the fields are standard, ensuring all the information gets back to the paper is guaranteed. Also, carriers don't always come back to the distribution centers and may not even have to come back. The handheld system provides a way to get the information without physically returning.

Selling systems
Salespeople also have a need to stay in the field, but be able to give customers up-to-date information as well.

Managing Editor's AdsUp Palm solution, also in beta, is for remote sales work. The AdsUp product allows salespeople to connect via HotSync and access customer information, current orders and quotes, and other sales information. It also allows them to create new orders and generate quotes.

"Palm devices are already in a lot of people's hands, managing contact, checking email, etc.," said Mark Leister, vice president for business development at Managing Editor. "And it helps that it has a ubiquitous ease of use."

Through the Palm device, sales reps can place such things as insertion orders and ad specifications. According to Managing Editor, the sales rep is walked through each of the steps to process an order via screens on the Palm device. Once the sales rep is finished with the order input, a modem connection is made and a HotSync is performed to upload the data, which lands in output folders and waits to be picked up by the dedicated server.

"The AdsUp system is a series of databases located on the Palm and the application uses those databases," said Stephen Arbour, Managing Editor's product manager. "It's pretty sophisticated; it performs all the calculations of a sales order right on the Palm."

Leister said there are some beta sites, but no announcements just yet.

Steve Smith, president of Publishing Business Systems (PBS) of suburban Chicago, said there's plenty of enthusiasm out there for Palm device solutions.

"We are working with some of our developer partners on some Palm solutions," he said. "We've already done Web-based solutions, and we've done HTML [HyperText Markup Language] and [Microsoft] Access, and we can easily pass that to a Palm."

He sees the Palm solution more of a customer demand issue.

"The Palm setup is a pretty straightforward process," Smith said. "A Web solution or wireless is a little more complicated."

Scott Bray, circulation product manager for Baseview Products Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., also said there hasn't been a lot of customer interest for a Palm solution, but the option is always open.

"The Softbook technology looks more interesting," he said. "The larger display is better."

So, while the handheld isn't quite as ubiquitous at the newspaper loading dock as it is at the airport gate, newspapers and their suppliers are beginning to leverage the technology to their advantage.

-- Jason Zappe, jzappe@colepapers.net

Advanced Technical Solutions Inc.,
(978) 657-6500;
Baseview Products Inc.,
(734) 662-5800;
Geac Publishing Systems,
(813) 878-7867;
Handspring Inc.,
(650) 230-5000;
Managing Editor Inc.,
(215) 886-5662,
e-mail: info@maned.com;
Palm Inc.,
(408) 326-9000;
Publishing Business Systems,
(651) 639-0662.

See also Palm profile and Dewar profile.

From THE COLE PAPERS, April 2001, Copyright © 2001, All Rights Reserved.